I Am Cold

Chilly hostel lobby, Coimbra, 4.05pm

Made it without drama to Coimbra this morning after a very enjoyable three days in Porto. I really loved the place, it was all steep, cobbled alleys and rotten looking buildings in this permanent damp mist. All with the sound of gulls and church bells and rather gothic towers looming out at you. Very atmospheric.

I spent Wednesday just wandering about, half trying to find places and half just looking at everything. Plus the city wasn't exactly planned, it isn't a nice massive grid system like Melbourne, which meant that finding places was tricky. I'd finally work out which way I was going on the map and where something should be and get to where I thought it should be and crack it because it wasn't there. Then I'd turn around and ta da! It'd be right in front of me.

So I visited the Igreja de Sao Francisco, a church which was just old stone and not particularly impressive on the outside, but inside it looked like the gold fairy had vomited all over it, pretty impressive. It also had catacombs underneath, full of not only entombed dead people, but a little window where you could look down underneath and see human bones from other people buried there. They used to bury people in churches before they had cemeteries. I also wandered along the river, checking out the port wine cellars across the river in Gaia. I wandered around the shopping district, went to Porto's oldest bookstore and bought a book. The place was magnificent, very elaborate woodwork inside. I also found the super hip arty section of Porto and bought a couple of little brooches. Then I had two beautiful espressos at Cafe Guarany, a famous and old cafe. Mum certainly would've appreciated the presentation of the coffees too. They came in a mini cup and saucer with sugar, spoon and chocolate on the side, and all of that was sitting on top of another napkin and a bigger saucer. Made me so very very happy!

Had a wonderful encounter at Mini Preco (mini supermarket) one afternoon while I was waiting in the twelve person long queue to pay for my packet soup and Kit Kat. I looked up to see an old lady putting her groceries in her bag and she lifted up this thing which I swear to god looked like a skinned and vacuum sealed cat. I'm hoping it was a rabbit or something, but it was GROSS and SCARY and my mouth literally dropped open in horror.

Yesterday I took the train up to Regua and back, just for the trip because for about half the journey it goes along the Douro river and it's a really pretty ride. There are vineyards and old farms and ORANGE TREES, lots of orange trees. The hills coming down to the river are really steep so they are divided into terraces with stone walls and on each level there was often a line of vines on the outside and orange trees on the inside. And being winter it was all green and grey and brown, except for all the bright little oranges!

My hostel in Porto was great, the staff were really friendly and the place was clean and nicely set up. I got a room to myself, yay, because the day after I got there they were filled up with a group of chemical engineering students and a couple of teachers from Amsterdam. Yes, 4 girls and 22 boys. They all arrived at 8pm and came pouring into the living area where I was quietly eating my soup and kiwi fruit so that was fairly....funny! They were polite and friendly and out all day doing uni stuff so it was fine.

And now I'm in Coimbra and it's freezing - stupid tightarse hostels and their lack of heating! Plus I couldn't find a supermarket so I am having dinner from a vending machine, squee. Oh and my hostel in Evora, next place I'm going, has just emailed to say that I can't stay there because their renovations aren't finished. Perhaps this counts as an emergency worthy of a hotel with heating and my own TV and bathroom.